Hotmail and Outlook are down: Xbox players as well as hundreds of email users are unable to access their accounts due to Microsoft outage
A Microsoft crash has locked thousands of email users have been locked out of their accounts today.
Website status monitoring service downdetector.com said there had been 1,276 reports of problems with Outlook today, which was previously known as Hotmail and is offered by Microsoft.
A spokesperson for the firm said: "We are aware of reports that some users are having difficulty signing in to some services. We are investigating this issue."
Skype users are also having trouble logging in to the chat service.
Some users said the service does not recognise their login details, with complaints coming from across the globe.
The issue is also affecting Xbox players, who can't access their Xbox Live accounts because they are run by Microsoft.
Hey everyone, we're aware of issues currently affecting sign in. Thanks for your patience & visit here for updates https://t.co/99xfLMWcZW pic.twitter.com/Ny7l6tisNr
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) March 7, 2017
One user said on Twitter that Microsoft said it is working on resolving the issue, and hopes to have it fixed in "a few hours".
https://twitter.com/chiefbeefy/status/839113807251259392
https://twitter.com/LeeWillyyy/status/839113440350334977
Is #hotmail down? #FirstWorldProblems pic.twitter.com/gv1tSUNhJT
— AM (@Ananke1987) March 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/AlexEElmore/status/839111784371900416
https://twitter.com/AlexEElmore/status/839111784371900416
The @MicrosoftHelps Twitter account is currently being inundated with requests for help with logging in.